With the first public vote anywhere in the United States to legalize, tax and regulate cannabis for recreational use, Californians are poised to drop the first domino in what will surely be a new era for our country. So what exactly does that mean? Let's jump ahead to 2020 America and take a look at what the New Stoned Age will function like.
Imagine walking into the grocery store to do your everyday shopping. You walk through the store and pass the deli where you smell a hot fresh batch of Asparagus and Purple Haze Cannabis soup wafting from behind the counter. You're offered a container of the soup, you show your ID to the man behind the counter and are offered a sample taste. Nodding approvingly, you are handed a hot container of soup and away you continue through the store.
Next to the store's customer service counter is a small area with a door and a security guard checking IDs as people enter the room. You walk up and present your ID and the guard opens the door for you. You walk in to find what resembles a room sized humidor with one side of the room offering an array of tobacco products, cigars, cigarettes and other items.
The other half of the room is devoted to display jars of dried buds and flowers of dozens of variety of cannabis sativa and cannabis indica with rolls of plastic produce bags hanging neatly next to each rack of jars. Prices range from $5 an ounce commercially produced factory farmed low grade Mexican product to strains imported from the UK and Amsterdam selling for $200 an ounce.
A nice lady in a white butcher's coat walks over to you as you are admiring the strain of Mendocino Blue on display for $40 an ounce. She asks if you are looking for a particular flavor and tries to upsell you as you pick out the Diesel strain you usually buy.
You then walk over to the display cases where a dizzying array of cannabis laced treats and goodies are displayed. The usual cookies and brownies are present, and so are the lollipops and breakfast bars, powdered drinks and sodas with cannabis infused into their formulas.
The pot monger bags up your half ounce and prints a tag for you to scan at the self scanner where you bag up your purchases and head for home to cook a fine meal, followed by a relaxing evening at home on the couch.
This scenario could soon be a reality as Californians are about to make this possible future happen. And as has always been our history, As goes California, so goes the rest of the nation. Even here in Indiana the old reticence to even discuss this issue has begun to break down. Discussions about Proposition 19 have people in Indiana buzzing about our chances of at least getting medical use approved in the not too distant future.
So Californians, get out and vote this into reality so that the rest of us can someday join you in your freedom. We are all watching and waiting for the results on Election Night. I know once this initiative passes it will mark a major date in US history as the moment we took the courageous step toward repairing our economy and our society which has been divided for too long over the War on Marijuana.